Instant Analysis: UNC Thrashed By Clemson in ACC Opener

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — So much for the extra time afforded Bill Belichick to get North Carolina better prepared for its ACC league opener.

The Tar Heels came off the first open date on their schedule and effectively face-planted headlong into a brick wall, as previously ailing Clemson lowered the boom in a 38-10 beatdown on Saturday at emptying Kenan Stadium.

This quickly became a failure of epic proportions, and another embarrassment that played out in front of a national television audience here just five games into UNC’s Belichick experiment. The Tar Heels plummeted behind 28-3 before the first quarter was done, their bumbling providing a cure for Clemson’s ills, on this afternoon at least.

The deficit was 35-3 by halftime, and the home crowd had seen enough. Most among the announced attendance of 50,500 had headed for the exits before the second half got underway. By the final horn, UNC had been buried by a combined margin of 120-33 in its three games — all lopsided losses — against opponents from power conferences.

Clemson’s Cade Klubnik threw four touchdown passes during the first half, three of them in the first quarter. He started by hitting on 18 of his first 19 passes, before finishing 22-of-24 for 254 yards and giving way to backup Christopher Vizzina late in the third quarter.

The Tigers (2-3 overall, 1-2 ACC) arrived off to their worst start though four games in 21 years, after being picked as the runaway favorite to claim the ACC title in the preseason. But T.J. Moore’s 75-yard touchdown on the game’s first play from scrimmage had Clemson landing an uppercut right out of the gate, and the Tigers proceeded to roll with ease.

Clemson’s 28 first-quarter points marked the most the Tar Heels have allowed since the 2001 season opener.

A storybook moment for Carolina quarterback Max Johnson this was not. He made the second start of his UNC career, and the first since the ill-fated 2024 season opener, when he suffered a gruesome broken leg. Johnson went 26-of-42 for 213 passing yards, mostly a fog of screens and flares to the flat. And the Tar Heels essentially did nothing on the ground with 57 rushing yards. Benjamin Hall’s 11-yard touchdown run made it 38-10 in the fourth quarter.

Tigers’ Start Sends Tar Heels Reeling

Clemson needed all of 11 seconds of game time to assert control. Cade Klubnik’s swing pass behind the line of scrimmage went to receiver Antonio Williams, who loaded up and lofted a strike to T.J. Moore running open down the sideline. Moore got deep on Thad Dixon and burned the UNC cornerback there. That went for a 75-yard touchdown, and the Tigers led 7-0 immediately.

And so it wasn’t a fast or inspiring start for the UNC defense. On Clemson’s next possession, the Tar Heels looked flat-out slow as running back Adam Randall tightroped the sideline and scampered in on a 35-yard touchdown catch and run. UNC linebacker Andrew Simpson and defensive backs Will Hardy and Jaiden Patterson all missed on chances there to either tackle Randall or get him out of bounds.

That moved Clemson ahead 14-3. And by that early juncture, with just 6:06 of game time elapsed, the Tigers had piled up 150 total yards and two touchdowns on only four plays.

Later, Klubnik tossed a 23-yard touchdown pass to Randall, who was left uncovered out of the backfield, as Clemson’s lead ballooned to 28-3 late in the first quarter. That had some of the UNC student fans starting to leave, and the game hadn’t even reached 1 p.m. yet. The Tigers’ first 16 plays on Saturday produced 253 total yards and four touchdowns. Klubnik threw for 158 yards in the first quarter alone.

Next on the Schedule

Carolina turns the corner into more downtime, with the back end of its two open dates on the schedule sandwiched around this ACC opener against Clemson. Since losing on Sept. 20 at Central Florida, the Tar Heels have entered a period with only one game across a stretch of 26 days, due to the bye weeks in close succession.

UNC next plays on Oct. 17 at California, a Friday night road assignment on the West Coast. The Tar Heels and Golden Bears will be squaring off in football for the first time since Cal joined the ACC in August 2024. Cal leads the all-time series 2-0 against Carolina, after sweeping home-and-home meetings in 2017 and 2018 at the end of former coach Larry Fedora’s time in charge of the Tar Heels.

Cal has started this season 4-1 overall, including 1-0 in the ACC, entering tonight’s game against visiting Duke. The Bears, in their ninth season under coach Justin Wilcox, perhaps have a budding star in true freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, a five-star recruiting prospect and the No. 4 high school quarterback nationally in the Rivals Industry Ranking. Sagapolutele became just the second true freshman in Cal football history to start a season opener at quarterback, joining Jared Goff, who did so in 2013.